Ruby

He turned my whole life upside down and inside out.

He stripped me of choice and pride.

He tore away my hope and shattered my faith.

He is my captor, and now he is my husband.

My vows to him were spoken from the depths of my hatred, under threat and duress. He is beauty shrouded in evil. And yet, every day that I spend as his, I catch glimpses of the man that could have been. He was made this way, crafted into a monster by the hands of a devil. The more I look, the more I see the jagged pieces that rattle around the heart I thought was hollow. When I realize the butcher of my husband's heart, my own breaks apart, stitched back together by a love I never wanted for a man I thought I'd hate eternally.

I vow to myself, no matter the cost, I will find a way to thread his pieces back together. I'll find a way to reassemble the broken puzzle of his sharp heart.

Because there is no escaping him. He's ensured as much. I am held prisoner by so much more than the shackles of gold that circle my finger. I am a prisoner of my own heart, trapped by a dangerous love for a monster.

But at least he is my monster.

Kirill

She came to me as a favor.

A burden I didn't want or need.

A tiny thing with fiery hair and a temper that defies her innocence.

She holds strong to a faith I threaten to shatter with ugly truths.

She's my salvation, but she calls me her devil.

I might not be the one who stole her.

But I'll be keeping Ruby.